Monday, February 18, 2008

Just as I Feared/Fantisized...

Over the holiday weekend, I had the opportunity to purchase and install The Movies... and just as I feared/fantisized, I was instantly addicted. This will seriously impact my school work for the term... perhaps positively in this class and negatively in other classes? Perhaps negatively to both?

I spent most of the weekend at a retreat center in outside of Deerfield, MA with some Arts in Education program-mates. While most of them spent the first day exploring the area by foot or by snowshoe, I spent it indoors getting my first movie studio set up!

I started with the "Learn the Basics" tutorial and that took me through some basic screen navigation controls. It seemed pretty intuitive so I moved quickly through the tutorials and went on to gameplay and just jumped right on in!

The initial steps of the game were also peppered with thought bubbles and tips on what to do next. You've gotta build some buildings like a stage school, a crew facility, a casting office, and a production office. Once those buildings are built, people line up at them looking for jobs and you've got to hire talent (directors, actors, extras) and staff (builders, janitors, crew, scriptwriters). Then you've gotta give those people training and experience and then get to making movies.

As it was my first time, I was just exploring and seeing what would happen and how things work. It starts in 1920 and I'm now in 1959, ranked 5th out of 9 studios and I have an efficient operation that can put out a whole lot mediocre movies with middle-of-the-pack actors and directors. Basically, quantity is excellent, but quality is average at best...

We'll see what happens... In my projective self, I want my studio to be known for making better films. I may try to slow my whole process down and start concentrating on making quality films... see if I can change the image of the studio (just like I can makeover the image of my talent by giving them a new wardrobe and a fancy new haircut!). Or maybe I'll start over with a brand new game. It's been about six hours of gameplay (did I mention how addictive and immersive it is?!), and without "finishing the game" (by at least playing through the current date), I'm already recognizing what could've been done better and making plans for my next game!

1 comment:

Beth said...

Jonas!

I can't get out of the number 5 spot! I had a brief stay at number 4, but was back down to 5 within the year. We need to have a brainstorming session.

Have you tried making your own movies yet?